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"It's just been a place of belonging": Oral Histories of GSAs/QSAs in Alberta

Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs)/ Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) are youth-led groups aimed at providing welcoming, inclusive opportunities for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and all other sexual and gender minority (2SLGBTQ+) students and their allies to gather. The first GSAs in Alberta were created in the early 2000s in public high schools. In this talk we discuss our ongoing oral history project that aims to document the experiences of GSA/QSA members and facilitators from Alberta, Canada who have been involved in a GSA/QSA over the last twenty years. We will also officially launch our webpage (https://gsaoralhistories.com) which draws upon our initial findings from interviews with 10 facilitators and participants of GSAs in Alberta. In this presentation we will: 1) outline some of the history of GSA legislation in Alberta; 2) highlight some of the emergent key themes from our interviews; and 3) discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of this type of community-based oral history research project, with attention to the challenge of conducting interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mar 10, 2023 02:00 PM in Mountain Time (US and Canada)